Wikipedia is a perfect example of a site that relies on the immunities afforded by CDA 230. The website—the seventh most popular site in the world—is a completely user-generated online encyclopedia that is freely available in hundreds of different languages.

Continuing our series of posts about the importance of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230), we spoke with John Swapceinski, co-founder of the Ratingz Network, which runs over a dozen review sites. Swapceinski got his start in the rating business when he founded RateMyProfessors.com in 1999, a site for college students to review their teachers (which he sold in 2005). In 2004, he started RateMDs to let people review doctors, and in 2005 he co-founded LawyerRatingz, RealEstateRatingz, VetRatingz, and more as part of the Ratingz Network.

Free speech has very strong protections in the United States. Not only do we have laws like CDA 230 that allow review sites like Yelp to exist, but we also have very strong defenses ingrained both in our Constitution and in our statutes. Unfortunately, there are aspects of the legal system that are easily abused; people too often use lawsuits to intimidate others and stifle their speech.

One of the largest hosts of third-party speech is the site WordPress.com. With over 38 million sites all over the world, the site has empowered users to speak their minds and comment on each other's creative content.

We spoke with Paul Sieminski, General Counsel of Automattic, the owner of WordPress.com, about the importance of CDA 230 on free speech online.

What types of complaints or legal threats have you encountered regarding user behavior or content?